1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to semiconductor devices and semiconductor systems including the same.
2. Related Art
In a semiconductor system including a controller and a semiconductor device, a read operation or a write operation may be performed by transmission of data between the controller and the semiconductor device. During the read operation, data stored in the semiconductor device may be transmitted to the controller. During the write operation, data outputted from the controller may be transmitted to the semiconductor device and may be stored in a storage unit of the semiconductor device. A data masking operation may be used to store only desired bits among bits of the data outputted from the controller into the storage unit of the semiconductor device. That is, if the data masking operation is performed, the semiconductor system may store only desired bits among the data outputted from the controller in the semiconductor device. In order that the data masking operation is performed in the semiconductor system, a data masking signal including information on data to be masked should be transmitted together with the data from the controller to the semiconductor device.
Meanwhile, if the number of data bits whose phases are changed when the data are transmitted in the semiconductor system increases, a simultaneous switching noise (SSN) phenomenon and an inter-symbol interface (ISI) phenomenon may occur more frequently. Recently, a data bus inversion (DBI) scheme has been used to suppress the SSN phenomenon and the ISI phenomenon. If data outputted from the controller are transmitted to the semiconductor using the DBI scheme, the data have to be transmitted together with a DBI signal including information on whether the data are inverted.